ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Hundreds of mourners, many sobbing, gathered
Monday at Athens' cathedral to file past the remains of Archbishop
Christodoulos, the first leader of Greece's powerful Orthodox Church
to welcome a Catholic pope to Athens in 1,300 years.
The charismatic cleric was often named Greece's most popular public
figure but was also criticized as an ambitious reactionary. He died
at his home in Athens on Monday at age 69 of cancer, leaving the race
for his succession wide open.
Christodoulos has been credited with reinvigorating a church seen as
distant from its followers in a country where more than 90 percent of
the native-born population is baptized into it.
Greece's Orthodox Church holds considerable sway among the world's
Orthodox churches. Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I
is the spiritual leader of the world's 250 million Orthodox
Christians.
Arguably the greatest achievement of Christodoulos was helping
improve ties with the Vatican.
"The doors of communication with the Catholic Church had rusted over
and they were again opened by Archbishop Christodoulos,
theologian Giorgos Moustakis. "This was a very difficult thing, and
it was opposed by powerful fringe religious groups."
Despite vigorous protests from Orthodox zealots who marched through
Athens denouncing the pope as the anti-Christ, Christodoulos in 2001
hosted the late John Paul II - the first pope to visit Greece in
centuries. The archbishop followed up in 2006 with visit to the
Vatican, where he and Pope Benedict XVI signed a joint declaration
calling for inter-religious dialogue.
Orthodox zealots supported Christodoulos, however, on one of his most
outspoken public campaigns. His efforts to stop the government from
dropping the religion entry from state identity cards saw him holding
public rallies before hundreds of thousands of people in 2001. The
church claimed its petition campaign gathered 3 million signatures -
more than a quarter of the population. But the campaign failed.
Christodoulos was elected church leader in 1998 and thundered onto
the public stage, appearing on television and radio shows, visiting
schools and hospitals, alternately fascinating and shocking Greeks
with his fiery speeches.
"Clergymen are above kings, prime ministers and presidents," he once
said.
Within months, he had expounded on everything from Greece's economy
to relations with Turkey, leading some politicians to grumble about
his apparent political ambitions.
A spate of scandals which saw senior clerics accused of embezzlement,
involvement in sexual misdeeds and even trial-fixing in 2005 led to
calls for his resignation. Christodoulos publicly apologized for
failing to contain the scandal and defeated a no-confidence motion in
the church's governing Holy Synod by a vote of 67-1.
But public criticism quickly faded after he was diagnosed with cancer
of the liver and large intestine in June, and he was widely praised
for the strength and dignity he showed during his illness. He refused
hospital treatment in his final weeks.
The government declared four days of mourning, culminating in a
funeral in Athens with full state honors Thursday. Christodoulos'
body will lie in the capital's cathedral until then.
The Holy Synod has set the start of the election to chose a successor
for Feb. 7.
"The Archbishop worked to bring people closer to the church ... now
his tireless voice has fallen silent," the Patriarchate said. "His
parting is painful."
Greek Orthodox Patriarch of the Holy Land Theofilos III described
Christodoulos as "a very dynamic church leader... He was a man who
worked in order to promote reconciliation and coexistence and mutual
tolerance between the religions."
In a statement, President Bush said, "The late Archbishop was well
known as an articulate voice of the Orthodox faith, for his
engagement in inter-religious dialogue, and for his promotion of
social programs to help the vulnerable. Our prayers are with the
people of Greece and all those who followed his spiritual guidance."
___
Associated Press writers Derek Gatopoulos and Nathalie Rendevski-
Savaricas in Athens contributed to this report.
107, any copyrighted work in this message is
distributed under fair use without profit or
payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving the included
information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
- -
Dead Celebrity Alert is brought to you by
http://www.amuseyourself.com
- -
Earn your degree in as few as 2 years - Advance your career with an AS, BS, MS degree - College-Finder.net.
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___
